Lawyer: Perry’s plans raise First Amendment, church-state issues

The Founding Fathers wouldn’t have been fans of Gov. Rick Perry’s official involvement with a Christian day of prayer, according to a presentation by First Amendment scholar David Furlow.

The Houston attorney quoted writings by early presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison that address prayer proclamations in particular, favoring a separation between a leader’s role in government and his personal faith.

“The best response (to Perry’s Christian prayer rally, The Response) is education,” Furlow told the 350-person crowd at the Jewish Community Center Tuesday. “Everyone here has the opportunity to educate their friends about the true history of our country and its struggle for religious freedom.”

While most agree the First Amendment’s freedom of speech and freedom of religion allow government officials like Perry to call, attend and participate in a Christian event, his use of government channels to promote the event is something to consider in the context of America’s tradition of church-state separation, Furlow posited.

“This is something we can learn from,” he said. “I am neither here to condemn nor condone, but merely consider.”

The evidence presented, though, did not support Perry’s official involvement as governor in such an event:

James Madison was hesitant over religious proclamations in particular, writing “I was always careful to make the Proclamations absolutely indiscriminate, and merely recommendatory; or rather mere designations of a day, on which all who thought proper might unite in consecrating it to religious purposes, according to their own faith & forms.”

Thomas Jefferson famously coined the phrase “wall of separation between Church & State” when describing the First Amendment to Baptists who asked if the president would dare “govern the Kingdom of Christ.”

The 1797 Treaty of Tripoli, submitted by John Adams and ratified unanimously by Congress, said “the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion….”

Organizers, on the other hand, position the event within America’s history observing days of prayer and fasting, as done by George Washington and others.

The First Amendment talk was sponsored by the Anti-Defamation League along with the Texas Freedom Network and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State.

Most attendees seemed opposed to — or at least concerned about — Perry’s involvement as governor in the upcoming prayer rally; they laughed when the rally was described as “apolitical” and chattered when Furlow showed the day of prayer announced on the state website and the official invitation printed on Perry’s gubernatorial stationery.

Official “’government speech’ is not supposed to favor any side on religion, said Mark Finkelstein, former ADL chair.

The ADL has called Perry’s event, sponsored by a Christian ministry and targeted at worshippers of Jesus, “misguided and inappropriate.”

Non-believers and Texans of other faiths see their leader and perhaps their tax dollars going toward an event that excludes them.

“I have no problem with a Christian governor being a Christian participant in a privately sponsored religious event that is open to public. I don’t believe that a governor loses his or her right to be who they are,” said Rabbi Stuart Federow, of Congregation Shaar Hashalom in Clear Lake. “My objection has to do with the problem of using a government website and government stationery and government support staff in the promotion of something that is exclusively Christian.”

Federow notes the event’s schedule, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on a Saturday, keeps Jews from attending because they will be observing the Sabbath.

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a request to find how many government resources were used in the organization of the event out of concern that the governor has been using his office to promote a sectarian agenda. Perry’s team responded in the story:

Catherine Frazier, a spokeswoman for the governor, noted that the AFA was paying for costs of the event and said no taxpayer dollars were being used. “Of course, his security detail will travel with the governor as they do everywhere he goes,” she said.

“Any time the ACLU is opposed to you, you must be doing something right,” said Eric Bearse, a former Perry aide and speechwriter involved with organizing the day of prayer and fasting.

Perry’s involvement with the event is unrelated to rumors of a presidential run, his role as governor or any other political interests and instead is purely a religious affair, Bearse has said.